The Needle Roll SAL

My basket of Shepherds Bush needle rolls

I have been in a year long SAL with Sally, we agreed to stitch a needle roll every month, the designs are by Shepherds Bush. I did not keep up well - sorry Sally, however we are continuing with this SAL next year - so I'll try to do better. In theory I should now have 12 made up needle rolls, and I have 9 and 2 in progress, so here they are. The pictures are dark as they were taken with a flash, maybe in the summer it might be brighter.

Snow Fall Roll

Antique Heart Roll
(I made an error in this - having left a gap for the lace,
I then stitched a band in the gap! oops, so I have added a band
of my own design, and need to decide what else to put in the gap)
I will then stitch this again as per the chart.

Garden Roll

Thanksgiving Roll

Pine Pin Roll

Folk Heart Roll

Millenium Roll

Tudor Roll

Stitcher's Roll

English Christmas Roll



Americana Roll

If anyone has any charts/kits in the rest of this collection that I can beg, borrow, steal, buy or trade - please email me or leave me a comment. I do already have some more charts/kits to stitch but wish to complete the set.

I just couldn't resist adding this mini roll to the collection.

Stitcher's Scissor Fob
by Lorri Birmingham

I hope to be back later with a further update, as I have more stitching finishes to add to complete my year.

The December SAL

Here's my progress on the December SAL. I didn't enjoy stitching this when I started, but it's grown on me. There's only a couple of pictures left to stitch, and I am thinking I may work on this tonight. I usually have a new start on New Years Eve, but I'm wanting to carry on with this, so I'll have to see how I feel tonight.

This is the first of my postings for today. If anyone remembers my competition - see here. I need to put up photo's of everything I've stitched on so we can see who the winner is. We are going out, and when I come back I think I will need to fight dh for the pc. See you all later.

More gifts I've made

I finally made a visit to Sally today, and delivered by hand the Christmas ornament I made for her in our private ornament exchange. I hope Sally likes it, and I'm sorry it's late, but hopefully the bottle I delivered with it makes up for the lateness! I do not seem to have taken a very good photograph of it, but maybe Sally will show you a better picture. I also just made it into a hanging ornament, with a ribbon hanger, I chose not to make the scissor keep.

Gingerbread scissors keep ornament
by The Victoria Sampler

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This was the birthday gift I made for Sally, we have been in a year long SAL, stitching a needle roll a month - although I stitch I do not regularly post on my blog - so you have all this to see soon. Anyway back to Sally's birthday, this is why I chose to stitch her a needle roll. I took the photograph with scissors in the background to try and show you the size of the needle roll, as it is huge in comparison with the Shepherds Bush ones we have been stitching. Unfortunately I did not get it finished in time for her birthday, and Sally didn't actually receive this until today, when I delivered it in person - hope Sally has opened it by now! and she doesn't think it's for her next birthday. LOL

Garden Check Needle Roll by M Designs
stitched on Polstitches hand dyed fabric
and recommended threads

A close up of the Spiders Web Roses
these were stitched in Thread Gatherer Silken Pearl

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Here's the photo's of the birthday gift I sent to my partner who had a birthday in November. This birthday exchange was organised by Edgar on the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club blog. I sent these gifts out in November, but I have no idea if they were received, but then neither have I heard that they didn't arrive. The stitcher I sent to no longer updates her blog, and I'm sure she doesn't read mine, but I hope she is well, and nothing has happened to her. As you can see I did my favourite tin finish, and included gifts from her wishlist. The scissors I sent don't show up on the photo, but they were two tone in dark green and red.

Exchanges

Here's a picture of the Tin exchange I took part in on the Just a Thought message board. The idea being - you fill a tin with Christmas gifts, and you don't have to stitch anything, this non stitchy exchange always proves very popular. I struggled to find a Christmas tin, but you might know I found plenty once I had sent one in the post. The tin I sent was just plain navy, but I thought it would make a great base to attached a stitched topper. I found these great Santa scissors, and couldn't resist making a little Santa fob for them. I also sent gifts as in the photographs and included a homemade Christmas card (cardmaking was once a hobby of mine).













AND ANOTHER EXCHANGE

Here's the hanging pillow I made for Gaby in the 'Gifts to friends' Christmas exchange. Gaby had this on her wish list, and I thought it was cute, so I made it into a hanging pillow. This is from the JCS ornament issue, but I don't really think it's very Christmassy, more an all year round ornament. I hope Gaby liked it. The following photo's are of the gifts I included - scissors, fabric, threads, finishing ribbon, chart with charm, diary, mini notebook and candy canes.

Gifts from friends

This is the wonderful ornament that Sally stitched for my for our exchange. It looks wonderful sitting in my tree, don't you just loved the twisted ribbon edge, and the pins. Sally hasn't got hers from me yet (blushing) - although it was finished and wrapped well before Christmas, I am hoping to deliver it by hand before the new year.

And look at this gorgeous needle book I received from my friend Carol, isn't it stunning, it's so fine and delicate. Thank you Carol (no blog). I'm using it already.

Gifts

Here's a selection of gifts I received from my family. As you can see I think they got the message that I like crafts. There was chocolate too, and the Wii Fit will help to get rid of that!

This was supposed to be a post about the stitchy gifts I received, but they seemed to have disappeared into the hard drive, so I will make another post about them

It's Christmas

Merry Christmas

I hope you've all had a great day, we have had snow for over a week now, although it's not snowed for days, it was very slippery outside yesterday, and now thankfully it seems to thawing, it's been warmer today, and it's now 2C. I hope that not too many of you are snowed in. I hope to be back tomorrow with some photo's. Hope you got lots of crafty gifts.

Christmas ornaments.

Snowman
Free design from Prairie Schooler

An ornament design from
JCS ornament issue
(I just need to track the issue down to give you full details)

Peace by Rosewood Manor
JCS 2008 ornament issue

Just a few of the ornaments I have made recently, these have all now reached their recipients. The snowman was sent to Maddy, the cute little birdie went to my friend Carol (who wasn't going to open it until Christmas-until I persuaded her otherwise). And Peace ornament to Becky.

A big thank you to Sally, who sent me a wonderful ornament for our exchange, and now I can't find the pic on the camera so now I need to take another. And an even bigger apology to Sally, who still hasn't received mine, even though it was wrapped up over 2 weeks ago.

The December SAL

Here is my December SAL with Sally, we decided on this last year when the design was published, and we have looked forward to it all year.

Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs.

First was the decision about what to stitch it on. Here's the choice, this is 36ct Belfast linen in Raw.

Then there was 40ct linen, hand dyed by me with tea leaves.



I decided to go with my own hand dyed linen, as I didn't really think the darker colours showed up too well on the Raw linen.

And here's the progress pic, I think the linen is a bit too light to show the snowflakes, maybe they would have shown up better if I'd done them in two strands, but this is not possible on 40ct, so I'll just have to live with it.

This piece has had a few visits from the frogs, I just hope they've gone now.

Whitmans Sampler Tin

Yesterday, the postie called, with a huge box. And just look what it contained. I was stunned, and words cannot say how much I liked the contents.

This was a tin exchange, at the JAT message board. The idea was to fill a tin with gifts, and you didn't have to stitch anything. As you can see, my partner decided to stitch for me, isn't it beautiful. And there was a tin still sealed, containing chocolates, which is going under my tree, and I will open that on Christmas day. I hope you can see the scissor fob and scissors, which were in the tin, and the other gifts. I've never seen a 2 year diary before, and then there's a Christmas decoration, a notebook and a highlighter. All these came from Lauren (no blog). Thank you Lauren.

This parcel was posted on 8th in the US, and arrived here in the UK on 11th. I sent my package out nearly 2 weeks ago, so where is it?

I also sent a package to the US about a month ago, and I have not heard from the recipient that it has been received, and this blogger has not updated their blog for some months, so I'm hoping they have received it. I'm going to share pics anyway, in the next few days, I'm sure they don't read my blog, so it should be OK. I have also posted off some Christmas ornaments, so I'm hoping to show those soon, and then there's the December SAL that I am doing with Sally, although I've not stitched on that this week. I have been really busy on an evening. On Monday night, I went shopping with DD, and by Wednesday night I was exhausted again, and was nodding off in the chair. This bug I have really takes it out of you. Thursday night, I was out with a group of friends from work for a Christmas meal. And last night I chilled out.

Gifts between friends

This is the wonderful exchange package that I received from Barbara. Don't you love it all, are you jealous. There's fabrics, thread, scissors, ribbon, thread drops, Sweetheart Tree chart and charm, a detailor (never seen one of these before, but looks like a nifty gadget) and chocolate, which dd can't wait for me to open, but I'm saving it for Christmas. Hope I didn't forget anything - oh such a cute little ornie in there too. I was going to save the package, but felt it would be rude not to post a pic before then.

Thank you Barbara.

And - once again I have been struck with illness, and still recovering. A flu type thing sending me to my bed, and leaving me exhausted by an evening. And if anyone would like this persistent cough, you're welcome to it.